Czech GP: Camel Yamaha Team Saturday notes

Valentino Rossi will start a MotoGP race from the front of the grid for
only the second time this season in tomorrow's Czech Republic Grand
Prix after clocking an incredible pole record time in today's single
qualifying session at Brno. Rossi's...

Valentino Rossi will start a MotoGP race from the front of the grid for
only the second time this season in tomorrow's Czech Republic Grand
Prix after clocking an incredible pole record time in today's single
qualifying session at Brno. Rossi's time of 1'56.191 was almost 1.5
seconds inside the previous best lap at this track and followed up an
impressive performance yesterday, when he also set the pace. A trial
run on a qualifying tyre in those first free practice sessions paid
dividends today as the Italian defined his race set-up for the YZR-M1
machine before setting a devastating pace which knocked Loris Capirossi
(Ducati) off the top spot in the dying moments of the session. Capirossi
will line up in second place whilst Kenny Roberts (Team KR) completes
the front row.

Rossi's Camel Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards also enjoyed a productive
day working on his race setting and was on course to challenge for a
place on the front two rows before a minor mistake in the first section
of his fast lap cost him vital tenths. It meant that his final effort
recorded 1'56.967 on the stopwatch - enough for eighth place and a
third row start. Tomorrow's race is the first of a final run of six,
which will determine whether Rossi can cut back a 51-point gap to
series leader Nicky Hayden (Honda) and defend the title of MotoGP World
Champion for a fifth successive season.

VALENTINO ROSSI (1st - 1'56.191; 25 laps)

"I think the practice today was a great emotion for everybody but
especially for us! We worked well on the bike, especially the tyres,
because we have suffered too much this season during the practice
sessions and my team and Michelin did a great job today. When I saw
Loris' time I thought it was very fast and didn't know if I could beat
it but I was very determined and I pushed hard on all three qualifying
tyres. In the end the final lap was great and to set a 1'56.1 was
unbelievable! For tomorrow pole position is definitely better than
starting from the fifth row like in other races so for this I am very
happy. We still need to decide two or three things about the setting
before the race, but I am quite competitive."

COLIN EDWARDS (8th - 1'56.967; 24 laps)

"I really don't know what to think about today! Our race pace is okay,
we're doing 58.6 which looks like it could compete for the top five, but
I won't be happy with that! I think we need to make some more changes
for tomorrow morning to the setting and see if we can find another
three-tenths. With the setting we were using today, the race tyre was
working well for 3 or 4 laps and then it was starting to lose grip and
then the lap times were going. So we've got a few ideas and we'll
fiddle with the setting in the morning a bit to see if we can sort that
out. On the positive side, I think we're finally figuring out what we
need to do with the setting in order to make the tyres work better with
our bike, and today the qualifier especially worked really well for me.
Unfortunately I lost half a second on the first split but the tyre was
perfect so that's pretty encouraging after some of the problems we've
had with qualifiers so far this season!"

DAVIDE BRIVIO - CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR

"It is very nice to be back in pole position - our first target for
the weekend was to qualify on the front two rows so we are delighted
that Valentino has gone one better! The last three races have all been
complicated for us because of the starting position but hopefully now
this should not be a problem for us tomorrow. Now we need to fix a few
things with the bike and find the best combination of the different
settings we have tried over the course of the weekend so far. There
are a few riders with a good pace so it will be a difficult race but
we expect Valentino to be up there and if Colin can get a decent start
then I believe he also has the pace to stay with the leaders and end the
weekend with a good result. For Valentino this is a very important race
because the championship could be a lot clearer tomorrow night."